Let's say you have a walkman or a bike or any other
thing-that-tends-to-get-stolen. The longer you own the
thing
the more it gets to know you. It's hard wired and can't be
changed (like the boy in AI!) When stolen the item starts
talking "I miss susan, she was such a good walkman owner ...
where is she?" If it can move it keeps trying to get away and
look for you. It would make thieves feel guilty-- I should take
this walkman back to it's mother ....

Another good one, futurebird. The only downside is the expense of building speakers into non-audio appliances...but then again they don't have to be high-quality, just good enough to sound pathetic and weepy. Imagine a whole pawnshop full of stolen items murmuring sadly amongst themselves!

Just rescued a Bassett Hound with New Jersey! tags from along side a road. Called her mom in NJ and told her Cleo was here. Cleo was sent home last night. We all believe she had been dog-napped to end up here in Indiana.....but, she was not *unhappy* here (maybe she was unhappy with her dognappers). She really seemed to enjoy her stay on the farm.

I had a dog disappear once and come home two months later....I'm pretty sure it had been stolen. Shame other stolen items can't make their way home also. I like this idea....so, from Susen to Susan....here's a croissant.

Kind of reminds me of some small critter in some LeGuin book I read years ago. I think they were called 'wotsits' or something. It seems they have a policy of not surviving captivity. We'd be long extinct if we had such a policy.

Regarding PotatoStew's comment: a device containing a Speaker can easily be engineered to stop working if the speaker is broken/disconnected/otherwise rendered silent, as these events would change the electric properties (impendance, capacitance, etc.) of the speaker terminals. Or, a microphone (miniature) could be included to verify the speaker's output.

That stuff would need to have AI build in I understand. It
learns the behaviour of the owner after it is bought from
the shop I assume. There should first some way for the
owner to 'give birth' to the item, otherwise it thinks that
the shop is the place it belongs to. After it's birth it is
then learning the behaviour of the new owner. When it is
stolen, it malfunctions and has difficulties adapting to the
habits of the new owner. That could be feasible because
a professional thief is not interested in actually using the
walkman but reselling it ASAP. But how to sell a walkman
that refuses to work at 3AM simply because it is used to
play when the owner takes the subway to work on
weekdays at 7:30AM? I think my iBook can tell it is me
typing, who else types like this, this frequent, so much?
With computers it should be feasible to start with. Simple
devices might become too expensive. Selling the items to
someone else second hand is still possible. The new
owner should just have a few weeks patience before it is
adapted to the new environment. The question is, do
people want to buy technology that limits to freedom to
use at anytime in any which way you want? People want
to keep the freedom of breaking out of their habits (while
they in practise never do). Just the thought that they
*only* use their walkman while commuting is a depressing
thought. Or imagine taking it on holidays and you want to
listen to your walkman at 3PM besides the pool. Your
walkman refuses, but you are still supposed to be at work.
Maybe fingerprints and taste in music would be a better
way for the walkman to know the owner? Anyway, a
croissant for the idea.

There was an episode of "Kids in the Hall" where someone tried to steal a car. The car was sentient and chased the erstwhile carjacker off. Then the car took the next step and decided to follow the thief home and harass him. Very funny stuff.

Personally, I think this is a great idea. However, I'm not going to give it a croissant, because of the huge cost of wiring A.I. into every random everyday appliance. Also, I personally don't think I could live with a bunch of devices that were constantly chatting and displaying habits of their own. It would make me feel like I was surrounded by thousands of furbies.

On the other hand, it could call home if it was nicked. People have already tracked down stolen computers because the thieves plugged the machine into the Internet... with chips for doing wireless communications set to drop to under $2 in the next year or two, your stuff could radio for help...

Sure as shit, the Grinch struck early 12-26. I'm minus a car CD/AM-FM Stereo as well as a front passenger window on a Saab Convertible. When I lived in Los Feliz - just East of my present domicile, 3 of 6 26th of 12's were marked by seeing broken glass in, on, and around neighbo(u)rs cars which were also newly short of a car stereo. Here's to my former Stereo playing *Hellhound On My Trail* forever and ever...

My friend Charlene had an experience like that. She lives way in the future after such products became common. After the empathic-products revolution.
You know, says Charlene, smacking on her IQ booster gum, Charley bought me this watch for my birthday. She held out her wrist like it had a leech on it.
Yeah, nice, I said, not really knowing what she wanted me to say.
Just look at it!
So I looked again, the watch was dripping wet.
You got it wet, so? All watches are waterproof in the future, since everyone lives underwater.
I didnt get it wet, its crying. And sometimes at night it sniffles.
Oh, jeez," I said, "Charley bought you a hot watch.
Im going to cream his butt as soon as he gets home.
I didnt stick around to see if Charleys butt got creamed, because I had to zip back to the past, ah, to the present, to save the world.

The idea is good in theory, but I'm not sure I'd dig something that might not be able to tell if it's been stolen or just thrown away. And I agree with other's contentions that it could lock someone into a routine. What would you do if you did change your routine? Throw away the old one because it couldn't adapt? "I'm sorry, iPod, it's not you, it's me. I've changed."

I'm tempted to give a croissant for ravenswood's annos. But I won't. Thoroughly awesome annos, though.

Man, that's hard to stomach. Is it Marx & Engles?I'd understand that. Please don't tell me it's Shakespeare or Kropotkin.
Oh dunces In Caps and Me too. I've had a minor painful accident on my way to look up references.'Everybody plays the fool, there's no exception to the rule.'

what if the device that's been stolen was mistreated by it's rightfull owner. Would it try to get itself stolen to get away from an abusive situation or would it be loyal at the expense of its well being?

What about devices that just hate thieves in general? And, giving devices the ability to talk to one another? Like, say a thief purchases a CD player legitimately, but steals a DVD player. The stolen device could not only stop functioning, but also "rat out" the actions of its new owner to the CD player, which then, out of disappointment, rendered itself unusable as well. Hehehe.